Tony Bittle, a senior specialist in the library at the Morris Library in Siu Carbondale, and Anne Marie Hamilton-Brehm, a associate dean of the library affairs, show the memorabilizations of the Siu female rugby club included in the exhibition “With You”, which highlights the achievements of women in sports in the past 50 years. (Photo by Russell Bailey; Rugby team photo)
April 25, 2025
The Siu exhibition celebrates the rise of female sports for five decades
Carbondale, ill. – an exhibition at the Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Morris Library Until June, celebrates the rise of female sports in the past 50 years and honoring the pioneer women’s boxers and the Siu Women’s Rugby Club.
“With you”, in the room of presidents and chancellors of the library, highlights the achievements of women in sport and traces the impact of legislation on title IX dating from its adoption in 1972.
A reception, with a question and answer session, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, May 2, in the Rotonde de la Library, will include former students of Siu Carbondale Britt Vanbuskirk and Renee Flottman, who were part of the first generation of female rugby players in Siu, Anne Marie Hamilton-Brehm, associated deyenne of the library.
Bobbi KnappAssociate professor of sports studies in Siu Carbondale, will be among the speakers. Knapp will discuss the history of the physical education of women and the athletics of women in Siu Carbondale with regard to a research project on which she works within the framework of the centenary Dorothy Davies Hall in 2025. She will also discuss the impact of laws such as title IX and organizations, including the association for inter -school athletics for NCAA.
By sharing the impact that sports have had on his life and the opportunities he can drive, Vanbuskirk said that she would also explain “that the opportunity to participate in sports has not always been there, and that is something that women had to fight in the 1970s”.
Title IX had a “enormous impact on the opportunities of girls and women in sports and academics,” said Knapp.
“In my research in the past two decades, I have noticed that there have always been women who have fought and have seized the opportunities to be physically active, and when society has cracked a door open to such opportunities, there have been girls and women to push the door further so that more women have such opportunities,” Knapp.
Stressing Siu’s female rugby, boxing
The exhibition includes information posters, stories and artefacts, including rugby uniforms, t-shirts (including one of Mainstreet East) and trophies (including one of mainstreet east, graciousness of Paulette Curkin) which extend over three generations of female rugby club players from the 1980s to the 2000s. Sportsmen and female have been given and are exhibited, as well as a slideshow of first generation rugby players on the field. The books given will be cataloged and available in the library Special collections research center Later this year.
Flottman and Vanbuskirk were close friends and teammates in the first SIU rugby teams in the early 1980s. Flottanman, who obtained his baccalaureate in business administration, worked with Vanbuskirk in the interview and the creation of profiles and graphic conceptions for the posters of the project that took more than a year.
“I had the pleasure of reconnecting with many incredible comrades – for whom I am eternally grateful – as well as Siu for having offered a club sport which went far beyond my college days in other clubs in the city,” said Flottmanman, who also played with St. Louis Rugby Club.
Tell stories of struggle, success
Hamilton-Brehm contacted Vanbuskirk, who connected with Siu when she moved to Carbondale to live with her family, who was the Faculty of Siu. In addition to the activities of the rugby club, the 25 -year -old boxing career in Vanbuskirk included the first Welters Woman Champion Welters in California in 1979. An inducted 2016 in the female boxing temple, Vanbuskirk and five other female boxers are presented as part of the exhibition “Sharing their difficulties in many years to be in a sport that was dominated by men” Flottan.
“We have recruited 15 of our friends from the rugby team from several generations and the” With You “project,” she said.
“We are honored to ask ourselves to tell our stories in the current environment – it is important that people understand the incredible progress we have made in female sports and what title IX, with all its ins and outs, gave us,” said Flottman. “We hope that some of the current students will come to see the many pioneers before them pave the way so that they take advantage of their passions as female arts.”
The Siu Women’s Rugby Club Remains active in 2025.
Work to honor the pioneers
Knapp, with Julie Partridge, acting professor and director of the Human Sciences School, works at the request for recognition of Dorothy Davies Hall as a culturally important landmarks. Knapp compile a historic file Sports pioneers of women Siu Dorothy Davies and Charlotte West, the Department of Physical Education for Women (where female athletics is from Siu) and the Department of Intercollegiales of Athletics (which was also accommodated at Davies Hall). Emphasis is placed on the role of West in this story and the importance of gender equity in sport.
Students of Knapp graduates lessons last fall and this semester did work to help discover and highlight the history of women’s physical education and women’s athletics in Siu, Knapp said.
“All this, as well as my own research efforts, will help create the first history of physical education and sport for women at the UU, through which I hope to show why such programs were important for the IU and how many people involved in each program were of national importance,” said Knapp.
(Publisher’s note: Bobbi Knapp’s surname is pronounced NAP.)